‘Madden NFL 13? showcases the new Nike uniforms

When it comes to the secrecy surrounding what the new Nike uniforms will look like in “Madden NFL 13,” the game’s art director, Jean Adams, says the design team’s studio was on CIA-type lockdown.

“We moved all of the people working on the Nike project into one room, and we even disabled the Internet connection in the room just to guarantee there would be no leaks,” Adams explains to me over the phone as Nike unveiled the real NFL uniforms to the world on Tuesday. “I first saw these a few months ago, so it’s great to finally be able to show what they will look like in the game.”

Adams flew out to Portland to meet with the uniform designers, and was one of the first people outside of Nike to see the early prototypes. “I saw the generic uniform that all of the new NFL uniforms were going to spawn from,” says Adams. “At that meeting, we didn’t see the actual uniforms, but they gave us enough information so we could get started with the design in ‘Madden 13.’ Based off the initial designs, we were able to get the templates into the game, and then a few weeks after that, I met with the designers again, and that’s when I saw the final uniforms.

“That’s when we were able to photograph all of the uniforms and get all of the pictures back to the artists at EA. It was all very hush-hush. It’s probably the most secretive project I’ve been a part of since working at EA.”